Posted on 01/25/2025 11:00:13 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
The White House's Office of Personnel Management did not mince words when addressing agency heads in a memo outlining the next steps for federal workers' return to office.
"Federal office buildings sit mostly empty, particularly Washington, D.C.-area agency headquarters offices, devastating the local economy and serving as a national embarrassment," Charles Ezell, the acting director of the OPM, said in the Wednesday memo.
Ezell added that "virtually unrestricted telework" has led to "poorer government services" and also hampered departments' ability to train and supervise workers.
The OPM defines telework as an arrangement in which employees are expected to report to an agency office on a regular basis but are also allowed to work from an alternative location, like their home. Remote workers have not been required to report to an agency office.
The memo follows Trump's executive order mandating the return of in-person office work for federal employees.
Ezell said the pandemic has been over for years and "the vast majority" of federal workers have not returned to the office.
Ezell also laid out three tasks that federal agencies must complete by Friday at 5 p.m.
The first requires each agency head to revise its telework policy to state that eligible employees must work full time at their designated site unless granted an exemption due to a disability, medical condition, or otherwise approved reason "certified by the agency head and the employee's supervisor."
The second requires that the agency head send an email notification to all employees about Trump's in-person work mandate and their intent to comply with it. The email should also include a copy of the mandate, the memo said.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
paywall
If the “workers” did not do any work then the country would be better.
I LOVE having a Department of Other People's Money! If only all federal workers realized that is what they are spending and should treat it as their own money.
The biggie to me is driving time. Sitting in traffic benefits NO ONE, including the American people.
Some will quit rather than commute. Some will cheer, but to my mind, those are likely to be the most capable of landing alternative and more attractive employment. Do we really want to lose specifically those people?
There are Federill agencies which historically have done a pretty good job. Although their cost v. benefit is arguable, the idea that private industry would step in to cover those functions is a remote likelihood. Examples are parts of the USGS or the crash investigation units of the FAA (insurers might step in there). We can certainly do without FEMA as the insurer of last resort.
I just don't see the benefit of people sitting in cars. Rush hour traffic around where I live has certainly been better since COVID.
Gotta route out the abuse and deadwood first. We have MUCH larger issues than DC traffic.
I was speaking to my Democratic neighbor this morning.
Her youngest daughter works for a government lab. She’s not a happy camper.
The daughter’s beau normally worked from home. Half his team lives far from the lab.
Many of the new employees were paid a "premium" if they were forced to relocate to the high cost DC area.
Now they work from home.
Is this a great country or what?
The daughter’s beau normally worked from home. Half his team lives far from the lab.
So they work in the lab one day a week. So we're paying for 20% output.
There doesn’t seem to be any concrete info on productivity. Are these employees getting the work done? Handling confidential government information by home computer has to be more than just using the regular old home computer.
Local tax prep office needs help, but everyone wants to work from their homes, and that is a security no-no. I doubt my own computer can be trusted for much of anything.
The External Revenue Service sounds fun too.
Makes me wonder if we have a couple of FReepers who are federal employees.
I'll respect them more if they were actually honest to us and they'll admit that they've enjoyed the "perks" of working at home and they didn't want Daddy Trump to take all of that away.
“Some will quit rather than commute.”
Perhaps housing vouchers should be phased out for the metro Washington, DC area so more federal workers and federal contract workers can get to the office faster and easier.
RTO involves lots of complicated trade-offs. I just don't see a simplistic order like this really working very well.
Note that the empty coffers are an embarrassment too.
HOORAY President Trump!
“Moscow is downhill from all the Russias.”
I agree with you 100%. Hours spent sitting in DC traffic is so wasteful.
Why pay for office space if workers can do what they have to do at home? Just have better ways of gauging their productivity.
Conservatives are pro-family, right? Hours sitting in traffic jams are hours workers could be spending with their families or keeping fit, or taking advancement courses, or doing volunteer work.
Some of them are in the office once a month. They fly into town at the end of the month, work two days, then fly home after covering two months. They are in the office, six times a year.
“External Revenue Service”
In a proper functioning America, our imports should be mainly balanced by exports in a tariff-free manner and the tariff revenue should comparatively insignificant, perhaps less than $10 billion in year.
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